movin' the charter

karen elaine spencer

With movin' the charter, karen elaine spencer proposes to disseminate excerpts from the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which she transcribed on large wooden panels.

By inviting particular groups of participants to choose passages of the Charter that particularly resonate for them, the artist appropriates these excerpts to produce large format panels, which she will donate to the participant team thereafter. In return, the latter commit themselves to disseminate them in the public space and then dispose of them as they see fit, having to assume the weight and the responsibility of this object created by the artist, with the inspiring and carrying character but at the same time bulky by its size and its materiality.

Through these inscriptions that she inserts into the public space, the artist not only promotes the Charter of Rights and Freedom, by taking excerpts of the magnified text right into the street, which gives her increased visibility, but it also gives a platform to some less well represented groups in society through sign painted panels.

movin' the charter becomes a place for meetings and exchanges around the articles of the Charter and what they can represent for different communities. A series of actions is planned as part of this project, which will take place between November 2018 and April 2019. The first action will take place at the Jean-Talon Market in Montreal on November 24, 2018, with the collaboration of Patricia Martin, Nuria Carton de Grammont and Linamar Campos Flores, as well as "Chema", the absent and invisible agricultural worker.

BIO

Born in 1960 in Nelson, British Columbia, karen elaine spencer lives and works in Montreal where she has lived for many years. She holds a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a Bachelor's degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax. In recognition of her contribution, she was awarded the Galerie La Centrale - Powerhouse Award in 2012. Her works have been presented in Canada, the United States and Europe, notably during Blogueurs en Captivité, a collaboration of DARE-DARE and Folie/Culture, at the Art in Odd Places Festival in New York, and in the context of the Moncton Performance and Intervention Art Festival. She has also given spoken word performances at the Westmount Library, the Arts Café in Montreal and the John Snow House in Calgary. Her work also takes place in the context of artist residencies, most recently at Brooklyn's International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) where she hosted the hey mike blog in 2012, as well as the New Gallery in Calgary and Praxis art actuel in 2011.